Monday, June 20, 2016

It's officially been two whole weeks since I've quit my job to pursue "the dream," and I wish I could tell you that I've figured everything out. Of course I can't, and I can't expect to. The bottom line it that it's going to take time and I have to accept that if I ever want to achieve my dreams.

Over these past two weeks there have been so many issues that I've already had to try and overcome, but the biggest issue of all is establishing a productive routine and workflow while working from home. As much as I love my alone time at home, it can feel really isolating at times being in the silence of my "safe space," all day long, with only my own voice in my head to drive me. No one is here making me feel guilty for not working, no one is telling me what to work on next, and no one is here to shake up my thoughts. Without any outside voices guiding my work, as well as being someone who is extremely indecisive, it can be really difficult to come up with content that I feel is engaging, unique, and interesting. With only myself in the room, I can do anything, which sounds wonderful and empowering, but when you can do anything where do you begin?

"When you can do anything, where do you begin?"

Overwhelmed by all of the possibilities for content that I could create, I felt stuck and couldn't decide where the hell to begin. When I feel overwhelmed and can't get my feet out of the cement to just do something (anything!) I always turn to procrastination. In this particular instance, procrastination was exactly what I needed to get the ideas flowing. I started scrolling through Twitter and came across a link that lead me to a contest for Astro yogourt and Chatelaine magazine, looking for the best recipe featuring Astro Original yogourt. And just like that I felt motivated. Suddenly I had a direction and a challenge. As much as things still remained incredibly open-ended (I could still make just about anything I wanted), having the parameters of having to use Astro Original yogourt in the recipe, as well as only being able to use a maximum of twelve ingredients, allowed me to free my thoughts and get the inspiring ideas rolling.

As much as creatives want their work to be their own, it's so important to allow outside voices in to offer a different perspective and direction that you may have not thought of yourself, as well as aiding in getting your feet out of the cement to just do the work! Now that I had honed in on what type of work I wanted to create for that week, I couldn't stop thinking of ideas and was so excited to get cooking! An idea that I kept coming back to was playing around with different crepe fillings using Astro yogourt. After developing a recipe for Raspberry Ricotta Crepes featuring Astro Original Vanilla Yogourt, I still had some leftover ricotta, crepe batter, and yogourt that I was itching to use. Naturally I thought of doing a take on a Rose family favourite, Cheese Blintzes.

Though I normally make my cheese blintzes with pressed cottage cheese (often referred to as "farmers cheese" or "dry cottage cheese"), I knew that a combination of ricotta and the vanilla yogourt would achieve that same creamy and rich consistency and flavour that everyone loves in blintzes. The blintzes turned out fantastic and I was so happy with the final photo I was able to capture before gobbling them all up, but more than anything I was so happy that I had a full week of productivity under my belt thanks to that one kernel of outside inspiration.

Want to help inspire me and guide which recipes I create and share? Let me know what kinds of recipes you want to see on the blog and tweet me your ideas on Twitter: @thisgingerrose

Ingredients:

Crepes

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup milk

1/4 cup vegetable oil

3 whole eggs

1/4 tsp salt

pinch of sugar (optional)

Filling

2 cups ricotta

1 egg yolk

3 Tbsp. full-fat yogourt + more for serving

2 Tbsp sugar

1 1/2 Tbsp lemon zest

2 cups fresh strawberries, hulled & sliced

Directions:

In a large bowl, vigorously whisk together flour, milk, vegetable oil, 3 eggs, salt and sugar until smooth. Cover and rest in fridge for 1-hour.

Heat a small crepe pan to medium heat. Spray with cooking spray and, working one at a time, add just under 1/3 cup crepe batter and swirl around pan to cover evenly. Cook for 1-2 minutes or until batter is no longer shiny. Flip and cook other side for 1-minute. Set on a clean towel to cool. Repeat with remaining batter.

Working one at a time, spoon 2-3 tablespoons of the filling about 1-inch from the edge of a crepe. Fold the lower edge of the crepe over the filling, and fold in the sides so it looks like an envelope. Roll up the blintz "burrito style." Repeat with remaining crepes. Cook blintzes immediately or place in an airtight container until ready to cook and serve.

To cook blintzes, heat a large, non-stick pan to medium heat. Spray with cooking spray and place in enough blintzes to fill the pan, making sure not to crowd them. Cook 3-4 minutes per side until golden. Repeat with remaining blintzes. Serve immediately with strawberries and additional vanilla yogourt.